Process for winding yarn package

ABSTRACT

After a desired amount of yarn is wound on a package and the driving motor of a winding machine is switched off, waste yarn of a non-uniform quality which is produced after the driving motor stops, is wound on the surface of the package by inertia. Immediately before, or the moment, the driving motor is switched off, the yarn traversing motion is temporarily stopped to form a bulge of wound yarn on the package. Only the waste yarn is removed from the package using the bulge as a guide for the removal of the waste yarn.

Write States Patent Hnaba et al.

[ Aug. 14, 1973 PROCESS FOR WINDING YARN PACKAGE Inventors: Sanro Inaba; Masakazu Fujita, both of Ehime-ken, Japan Assignee: Teiiin Limited, Osaka, Japan Filed: Sept. 15, 1971 Appl. No.: 180,615

Related US. Application Data Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 8,339, Feb. 3, 1970, abandoned.

Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. [0, 1969 Japan 44/9883 US. Cl. 57/156, 57/34 Tl", 242/18 EW Int. Cl B65h 54/34, B65h 54/00 Field of Search 57/34 TI, 95, 99,

57/156; 242/18 EW, 18 PW, 26.]

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1925 Seyfarth 242/18 EW UX 5/1956 Keefe, Jr 57/34 TI' 6/1972 Hori et al. 242/18 EW FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 187,936 8/1907 Germany 242/18 EW [57] ABSTRACT After a desired amount of yarn is wound on a package and the driving motor of a winding machine is switched off, waste yam of a non-uniform quality which is produced after the driving motor stops, is wound on the surface of the package by inertia. Immediately before, or the moment, the driving motor is switched off, the yarn traversing motion is temporarily stopped to form a bulge of wound yarn on the package. Only the waste yarn is removed from the package using the bulge as a guide for the removal of the waste yarn.

5 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures Patented Aug. 14', 1973 3,751,898

3 Sheets-Sheet l Patented Aug. 14, 1973 3,751,898

3 Sheets-Sheet 3 /2O ILIQ zl x22 PROCESS FOR WINDING YARN PACKAGE This application is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 8,339,filed Feb. 3, 1970, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to improvements in a winding process in which yarn is wound with drawtwisters, ring twisters, false twist machines, doubling machines etc.

In winding with draw-twisters, etc. the yarn is stopped when the package is full. When this is done, first the driving motors of the draw-twister etc, are switched off. Even after the switch is off, however, each driving roller and each winding spindle continue to rotate due to inertia, and it takes several minutes for them to stop completely, during which time winding of the yarn is continued. In the meantime, simultaneously with the switch-off of the driving motors, drawing or twisting speeds rapidly decline, and become abnormal Consequently, yarn which is drawn, heat treated or twisted under these conditions is irregular. That is, the number of twist, strength and elongation, dyeability and other properties, differ from those of the rest of the yarn on the spindle. If such irregular yarn was left in the yarn package, it would cause serious quality defects such as luster unevenness, warp streaks uneven dyeing etc. in textiles made from the yarn.

To overcome the above problems, the irregular yarn wound on the package after the switch-off of the driving motors of the winding machine is removed. However, the trouble is that it is difficult to tell acceptable yarn from waste yarn that is, what part is waste and what part is standard cannot be distinguished. Hence, if in order to be on the safe side, an excess .of standard over and above the amount of irregular yarn is removed, standard yarn is wasted, or if insufficient yarn is taken off, some irregular yarn remains unremoved. As a result, in the latter case the incompletely drawn, heat treated or twisted yarn will constitute a serious quality defect in textiles made from the yarn. To overcome this problem, the following countermeasures have been tried.

l. Utilization of a Control Device To each driving roller and each winding spindle is attached a brake. The moment the driving motors have been switched off, these brakes are applied to achieved rapid stoppage to minimize the occurence of waste yam. By this method, a decrease in the amount of waste yarn is attained, but thereis no direct effectiveness with respect to the removal of waste yarn from the package surface. Even with the application of the brakes after switch-off, each driving roller and each winding spindle require one or two minutes for complete stoppage during which time waste yarn is still wound on the package surface. In short, as a whole, the amount of waste yarn decreases, but the problem of removing only the waste yarn remaining on the package is not solved.

2. Utilization of a Waste Spool.

The moment the switches of the motor are shutoff, the traverse ring is lowered to the level of a waste spool disposed beneath the spindle in older to wind the waste yarn on the waste spool. That is, winding of the waste yarn on the package is avoided. In this case, the capacity of the waste spool becomes a problem. When the waste yarn generated after the switch-off of the driving motors is all wound onto the waste spool, the amount of yarn wound thereon rapidly increases and fills the spool, which necessitates frequency replacement of the full waste spool and makes continuous winding operations impossible. That is, when the full waste spool is replaced, the yarn on the waste spool must be cut off, and after the replacement, threading of the yarn onto the waste spool is required. So-called continuous doffing in which a full bobbin has only to be replaced by an empty bobbin becomes unfeasible.

The use of a control device and the utilization of a waste spool thus have disadvantages which are yet to be eliminated.

The inventors have, after research with a view to overcoming these disadvantages, hit upon an idea of taking off the waste yarn wound on the package effectively, accurately and with the least amount of standard yarn. The problem has heretofore been looked at in various ways, but the ideas have not yet been carried into effect. The reasons are that the distinguishing of standard and acceptable yarn from waste yarn is impossible. If the distinction were possible from the yarn shape, appearance or color, it would be possible to take off only the waste yarn itself. Actually the distinction is not possible from practical standpoint. In the present invention simple methods of distinguishing the waste yarn from the standard yarn have been found. The inventors have found that the distinction can be made by a shape on the surface of the package. This will be described below. At first it should be noted that the conception looks very simple, but has actually been reached by various research.

In the present invention, at the stopping of winding in a yarn machine, yarn traversing motions are stopped temporarily the moment, or immediately before, each driving motor for the rollers and the winding spindle has been switched off. The position of the stoppage is preferable almost the middle of the package. When the traversing motions are temporarily stopped, a bulge of wound yarn will quickly appear on the surface of the package. Waste yarn begins to accumulate with the initiation of the bulge;it is, therefore, quite safe to consider all the yarn wound after the formation of the bulge to be waste. In the invention the formation of the bulge on the package is essential, although a further bulge can be formed outside of the package, e.g. at the end of a bobbin where the standard yarn is wound, after the formation of the bulge on the package itself. To complete removal of waste yarn, the yarn forming the bulge is unwound until the bulge has disappeared where by the waste yarn will be completely removed from the package. The operations in this process are very simple and can be done in a short time.

As described above, it is the object of the present invention to provide a method of winding yarn which makes possible easy and quick removal from the package of yarn generated at the stoppage of the winding, and at the same time removing minimum amounts of standard yarn.

One embodiment will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one example of conventional yarn traversing motions in a twister;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section showing the winding shape of the yarn wound onto a bobbin by the traversing motions of FIG. ll;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing one embodiment of yarn traversing motions according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a vertical section of the package wound by the motions of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a further embodiment of yarn traversing motions according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a vertical section of the package wound by the motions of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a still further embodiment of yarn traversing motions according to the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a vertical section of the package wound by the motions of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a traverse driving means and winding means for the yarn winding machine according to the present invention; and

FIGS. 10 and 11 are diagrams showing the actions of the change-over valves of the yarn winding means of FIG. 9.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, one conventional method of winding yarn into a package has been shown. It has no way to eliminate the waste yarn from the package effectively. In FIG. 1 the length of time of winding is plotted as the abscissa and the traverse length is plotted as the ordinate. At the start a traverse ring is at position a, which position corresponds to the lower part in FIG. 2, waste spool 1. Preliminary windings 2 are collected on waste spool l for stringing up, and when the yarn has reached the normal speed after acceleration, the yarn begins normal traversing motions b.

Thus, the standard yarn can be wound on bobbin 3. In the course of the time when the yarn passes from a to b, it shifts from waste spool l to package 4, and a transfer tail is formed at 5 on the bobbin. After the winding is continued, the package becomes full, and the yarn reaches position 0, and the driving motors for the rollers and the winding spindles are turned off. The waste yarn generated during the time from immediately after the switch-off to the stoppage of the whole yarn winding machine is first wound on package 4. Afterwards, it is wound onto waste spool l by lowering the traverse ring to lowermost position :1 about the time when each driving roller and each spindle stop rotating completely. Hence the winding is concluded. In this case, the distribution of the waste yarn between package 4 and waste spool l is optional, but, as described above, the more the amounts on the waste spool, the more frequently must the waste spool be replaced, resulting in the stumbling block to continuous operations.

After the stoppage of the winding, with stringing up the yarn on the waste spool l, the yarn extending between the waste spool l and the package 4 is cut for effecting doffing, and an empty bobbin is supplied for the resumption or the winding. That is, the operations are started again, the yarn is wound onto the waste spool by traverse d until normal winding conditions are attained. Then the yarn is shifted to normal traverse e, and hereafter the same procedure is repeated.

In these conventional winding operations, the trouble is that the border between the standard yarn and the waste yarn is indefinite when the full packages are collected in one place to take off the waste yarn. Thus the operation of removing waste yarn from the bobbin must be done by means of a rough estimate of how much waste yarn is present. When the waste yarn has not been taken off completely and remains on the surface of the package, there is no way of knowing how much of it is still on the package, whereas when too much has been taken off, there is no way of knowing how much of the standard yarn has been lost. This will obstruct the progress of the take-off operations. Not only that, if it is included in the yarn package, this waste yarn could cause a serious quality deterioration in fabrics woven from the yarn, and if the standard yarn is taken off together with the waste yarn, it will cause an economic loss. This fact also serves to show the importance of the present invention.

The process according to the invention, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, is to switch off the driving motor for the rollers and the winding spindles when the package is full and the yarn reaches position 0 and at the same time stop the yarn traversing motions temporarily for length of timefto fonn bulge 6 on the surface of package 4. It should be noted that bulge 6 is the incompletely drawn yarn produced after the machine is switched off. Since this bulges is only a mark to indicate the initially wound yarn which is in an undrawn or partially drawn state, it need not be made larger than is needed, it is necessary to determine an appropriate length of time for stoppage of the traversing motions. After an appropriate size bulge is formed and the subsequent yam is wound on the package, the traverse ring is moved to position d just before the complete stoppage of each driving roller and each spindle at the conclusion of the winding. In the above description, the traversing motions are described as being stopped at the moment the driving motor is switched off, but they may be stopped just before the switch-off. In short, it is essential that bulge 6 be formed at an easily recognizable location on package 4.

In order to stop the traversing motions temporarily for a length of time f, any conventional means can be used. For instance, a device wherein a clutch is provided to connect or disconnect the driving and driven parts can be mounted on the driving shaft of the traverse ring.

Further the process according to the invention, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is to form bulge 6 by the procedure described above with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 and then to move the traverse ring to position g, outside of the winding width of the package and to form bulge 7 on the upper end of the bobbin. Then just before the spindle completely stops, the traverse ring is lowered to position d to wind the waste yarn on waste spool l and to finish the winding. In FIG. 6 the bulge 7 is supposed to be fonned on the upper end of the bobbin, but it may be formed at the lower end of the bobbin. Any suitable conventional device can be employed to transfer the traverse ring.

If the period from the switch-off time of driving motors to the time of stoppage of each driving roller and each winding spindle is relatively long, it is convenient to traverse the traverse ring several times after forming bulge 6, then to move it to position 3 outside of the winding width of the package and to form bulge 7 on the upper end of the bobbin, as shown FIGS. 7 and 8. By this process, the accumulation of a large amount of waste yarn on the spool l or bulge 7 can be avoided.

The method of the present invention is thus very simple and yet very conspicuous in its effects.

A variety of specific devices for carrying out such methods, are conceivable, and one embodiment will be described in connection with a ring twister, but it should be understood that the present invention is not limited thereto.

In FIG. 9, yarn Y passes through draw roller 8 and lappet guide 9 and traveller 11 on ring 10 and is wound on bobbin 3 mounted on wind-up spindle 12 to form package 4.

The spindle 12 is driven by motor 13 and the ring is supported by ring holder 14 which is secured on ring rail 15. By the up and down motions of the ring rail 15, the ring 10, that is, the traveller 11 is traversed vertically. By these traversing motions the package is formed. The source of the traversing motions will be described below.

The ring rail 15 is suspended by traverse belt 16 the direction of which is changed by freely rotatable pully 17. One end of the belt is fastened to the piston rod 19 of hydraulic cylinder 18. Hence by the left and right movement of piston 20 in the hydraulic cylinder 18 the ring 10 is caused to traverse vertically.

To both ends of the hydraulic cylinder 18, inlet and outlet oil pipes 21 and 22 are connected, and the other ends of said inlet and outlet oil pipes 21 and 22 are connected to change-over valve 23.

The change-over valve assembly, as illustrated in the Figure, which comprises valve A, valve B and solenoids X and Y actuating the valves, respectively, acts to change the direction of flow of oil led into the hydraulic cylinder 18.

To the oil inlet of the change-over valve 23 are connected oil supply pipe 24 and exhaust pipe 25. To the oil supply pipe24 is connected pump 26, and the suction pipe 27 of the pump 26 reaches oil tank 28. The exhaust pipe has its opening in the oil tank 28 and relief valve 30 is mounted on branch pipe 29 connected to the oil supply pipe 24. The branch pipe 29 reaches the oil tank 28 via relief valve 30.

Hence when the solenoid Y is excited, the valve A is connected between pipes 21 and 25 and pipes 22 and 24 respectively as shown in FIG. 10, and the pressure oil from the pump 26 enters the hydraulic cylinder 18 from the right side to move the piston 20 from right to left. When the solenoid X is excited, the valve B is connected in the pipes, as shown in FIG. 11, and the pressure oil enters the hydraulic cylinder 18 from the left side to move the piston 20 from left to right and to cause the oil in the right side of hydraulic cylinder 18 to return to the oil tank 28 via the oil outlet pipe 22 and the exhaust pipe 25. When the change-over valve 23 is positioned in the neutral position as shown in FIG. 9, the pressure oil from the pump 26 just returns to the oil tank 28 viathe oil supply pipe 24 and the branch pipe 29, the piston 20 remaining stationary. Since the relief valve does not allow oil to pass through it unless the oil is kept above a predetermined pressure, the pressure oil will not return to the oil tank'28 through the branch pipe 29 during the normal traversing motions if the pressure oil is below the predetermined pressure.

The piston 20 in the hydraulic cylinder 18 is caused to make reciprocating motions by alternately exciting solenoids X and Y. The method of exciting solenoids X and Y will be described below.

Numeral 31 designates an arm secured to the piston rod, and on the tip of the arm 31 is mounted switch striking piece 32 so that the switch piece 32 makes the same movements as the piston 20. Numeral 33 designates a threaded shaft on which threads 3130 and 33b opposite to each other are positioned at the left and right ends and meeting at the center. Limit switch 34a is mounted on the threads 33a and limit switch 34!) on the threads 33!; and the limit switches 34a and 34b do not rotate. Hence the limit switch 34a is caused to move toward or away from the limit switch 34b according to the direction of rotation of the shaft 33. A conventional electric circuit is provided such that when the switch striking-piece 32 engages the limit switch 34b the solenoid Y is excited and when it engages the limit switch 340, the solenoid X is excited. Numerals 35 and 36 are each limit switches secured in positions at the lower and upper ends of traverse. When these are excited, the change-over valve 23 is moved to a neutral position.

The operation of the present invention with the above-described device will be described.

At first the change-over valve 23 is positioned as shown in FIG. 11 and the limit switches 34a and 34b are separated from each other for the traverse length. When the shaft 33 is then rotated, traversing is started by feeding pressure oil from the pump 26.

When the piston 20 moves from right to left, the switch striking piece 32 contacts the limit switch 340, and if it produces a signal, the solenoid X is excited and the piston 20 moves in the opposite direction. During that time, the shaft 33 is rotating and the distance between the limit switches 34a and 34b gradually decreases.

In this way, traversing motions b, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, etc. are produced, and the package 4, as shown in FIGS. 2,4,6 and 8 is built up on the bobbin 3.

When the package 4 is completed on the bobbin 3, the motors for the draw rollers and the spindles are switched off, during which time a signal is supplied to the change-over valve 23 (independent of signals of limit switches 34a and 34b)-to keep the change-over valve neutral for a short time as determined by a timer (not shown). Accordingly, the piston 20 is stopped, traversing'is stopped, and a bulge 6 is formed. After the lapse of time set by the timer, the solenoid X is excited, the piston 20 moves to the right and the ring 10 descends and stops.

Even if the switch striking piece 32 is engaged with the limit switch 341:, the solenoid Y is adapted not to be excited. The change-over valve 23 is kept neutral by the signal given when the switch striking piece 32 strikes the limit switch 33 and the traversing motions stop.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 7, for stopping the traversing motions at point g, a signal is given such that the changeover valve 23 is kept neutral with the limit switch 36 disposed at a position corresponding to the point g, and the piston 20, that is the ring 10, is stopped for the length of time set by another timer (not shown) by the procedure described above. Afterwards, the piston 20 moves to the right, and the ring 10 stops at the waste spool 1 position below the bobbin 3. At this time the switch striking piece 32 contacts the limit switch 340 twice during its reciprocation. The electric circuit is such that when the switch striking piece 32 contacts the limit switch 34b, the signal of the limit switch 34 a does not reach the solenoid X.

The electric circuits described above are conventional and do not constitute elements of the present invention.

After doffing the package made according to the present invention, in taking off the incompletely drawn yarn wound on the package, it is sufficient to take off the yarn by using bulge 6 as guide for the amount taken off. As described above, the bulge indicates the boundary between the standard and waste yarns. Accordingly all one has to do for the complete removal of the waste yarn is remove this bulge. Wrongful excessive removal of the standard yarn, which has been the case thus far, is avoided. The presence of such bulges makes the removal operations much easier. With these bulges to mark the waste yarn present as in the present invention, the winding operations can be carried out accurately. Further, when a large number of packages are to be handled and it is forgotten to remove the waste yarn from some of them, it is much easier to find the packages with the yarn not removed by simply looking for the bulges.

In FIG. 6 a second bulge 7 is formed outside of the winding area after the formation of a first bulge 6 on the package. In the subsequent operations for the removal of waste yarn, bulge 7 can be pulled off the bobbin with the tips of the fingers, making the operations of removal of waste yarn much easier.

As described above, the methods of the present invention are characterized by forming a bulge on the surface of the package with waste yarn produced as the parts of the winding machine are still moving due to inertia after the switch-off of driving motors and after the filling of the bobbin, and by removing the waste yarn EXAMPLE Polyethylene terephthalate yarn was drawn and twisted at a speed of 600 m/min with a draw-twister to obtain the drawn yarn, 75 de/36 til. the amount or waste yarn removed from the packages wound according to the present invention was compared with the amount removed from packages wound by comventional methods for 1,000 pims each. The results are given in the following table:

What is claimed is:

1. A process for winding yarn in a package on a windup spindle in a yarn winding machine comprising stopping the yam traversing motion for a short time at a time no less than the motors for the driving roller and the wind-up spindle at the yarn winding machine are switched off at the end of the winding operation in the yarn winding machine to form a distinctly visible bulge of wound yarn on the surface of the package, and separating from the regular yarn irregular yarn wound on the package by unwinding the yarn wound on the package after the bulge is formed and unwinding the yarn forming the bulge.

2. A process for winding yarn as set forth in claim 1 comprising, after the formation of the first bulge, transferring yarn winding position outside of the winding width of the package to form a second bulge of irregular yarn on one end of the package.

3. A process for winding yarn as claimed in claim 2 in which the transfer is to the upper end of the package.

4. A process of winding yarn as set forth in claim 1 further comprising imparting several traversing motions to the yarn between the fonnation of the first bulge and the end of the yarn winding.

5. A process of winding yarn as claimed in claim 1 wherein the yarn traversing motion is stopped just before the motors are switched off.

t I i 0 i 

1. A process for winding yarn in a package on a wind-up spindle in a yarn winding machine comprising stopping the yarn traversing motion for a short time at a time no less than the motors for the driving roller and the wind-up spindle at the yarn winding machine are switched off at the end of the winding operation in the yarn winding machine to form a distinctly visible bulge of wound yarn on the surface of the package, and separating from the regular yarn irregular yarn wound on the package by unwinding the yarn wound on the package after the bulge is formed and unwinding the yarn forming the bulge.
 2. A process for winding yarn as set forth in claim 1 comprising, after the formation of the first bulge, transferring yarn winding position outside of the winding width of the package to form a second bulge of irregular yarn on one end of the package.
 3. A process for winding yarn as claimed in claim 2 in which the transfer is to the upper end of the package.
 4. A process of winding yarn as set forth in claim 1 further comprising imparting several traversing motions to the yarn between the formation of the first bulge and the end of the yarn winding.
 5. A process of winding yarn as claimed in claim 1 wherein the yarn traversing motion is stopped just before the motors are switched off. 